News

Comment: Stephen Price

A strange episode in the saga of the Irish film industry’s decline unfolded at, of all places, a heated meeting of Wicklow county council last week. Members from Bray and Greystones voted down a proposal to build what sounded like a dream project — a state-of-the-art film studio in Ashford.

They feared it might take business away from Ardmore, which is located in Bray. One angry Fianna Fail councillor described the decision as the worst kind of parish politics.

On the surface at least, the Ashford proposal seemed attractive. It was for two 30,000 sq ft sound stages, whereas Ardmore’s are only half that size, a reason sometimes cited for Ireland missing out on big productions.

Ardmore is also located on prime development land, so there is no guarantee it will stay in Bray. Yet the move by county councillors to block the Ashford proposal seems to have generated little protest